Cities to bring councils JPA contract for animal services
By Kara Chalmers
Seven cities, which today contract with the Humane Society of Santa Clara Valley for animal services, agreed June 7 to approach their respective city councils with a plan of their own.
They will create a Joint Powers Authority, an organization that will serve the cities of Campbell, Cupertino, Los Gatos, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Monte Sereno and Saratoga when the Humane Society changes from an "open door" facility to a "no-kill" one over the next few years.
The Humane Society now picks up stray, injured or dead animals from streets, holds animals to be reaclaimed, and enforces bark and leash laws for the cities, as well as for San Jose and Milpitas. The change will mean that the cities will perform these functions, although the Humane Society will still provide adoptions, spay and neuter operations, education and humane investigations.
Luckily for the cities, their contracts with the Humane Society do not run out until July 2001. Additionally, the Humane Society has promised to shelter animals until the cities find a new shelter.
"We'll support the other cities until they have a shelter in place, even if it takes longer than a year," said Humane Society executive director Christine Arnold.
The reason for the Humane Society's change is a state law, in effect on July 1, that will mandate longer stays for animals in shelters. Arnold is opposed to the law since she says that if shelters hold stray, wild or owner-surrendered animals--which may be unadoptable--longer, they may have to kill adoptable animals because of lack of space.
"Our goal is not to euthanize any adoptable animals, so I don't know if we can fully comply with the law," she said.
Arnold said she is worried about the July 1 start date for the law.
"We're very concerned about overcrowding," she said. "We need more space and we have no capability of increasing our space."
For the past year, the Humane Society has searched for a five-acre location to which the organization can relocate. Its 1.3-acre site is not large enough for what officials envision coming.
"Our plan is to build a community center for animals," Arnold said. She said such a center would include a community dog park, training classes, a community-education center, a state-of-the-art adoption center, boarding kennels, a grooming center, a pet store, a veterinary hospital and a spay and neuter clinic.
"We don't have any leads right now and it's really difficult finding property in this valley," she said.
Since the Humane Society will move its operations, the seven cities would like to purchase the current Humane Society facility in Santa Clara, according to Ron Garratt, the assistant city manager of Santa Clara. He has been coordinating the initial activities for the cities. That is reason, when the JPA comes before the councils, each city will be asked to contribute money both to hire a consultant to "steer the ship" of the organization, and also so that the JPA can make a good-faith offer to the Humane Society.
"In a few weeks, we hope to enter into serious discussions with the Humane Society to purchase it [the facility]," Garratt said. "We don't have the money yet to get appraisals or expert advice."
Garratt estimates that the cities will need $551,000, of which $300,000 would pay for the purchase of the Humane Society facility. According to the cost structure of the JPA, Saratoga would be asked to contribute only eight percent of the total, Garratt said.
The city of Santa Clara spent around $13,000 for a remodeling estimate, which determined that the building is usable and that it would need about $1 million worth of renovations.
Garratt said he has no idea how much the site would sell for but said it could be in the $2 million range. With the renovations, the project would total around $3 million.
Another option would be to build a brand new facility for the cities. Garratt said that such a project at a site in Santa Clara, not far from the current Humane Society, could cost $6 million to $8 million. But Garratt said that the first choice would be for the JPA to buy the current site, since it would be less expensive.
Garratt noted it could take the Humane Society months or years to find a new location, so one option might be for the JPA to buy the facility and lease a portion of it back to the Humane Society.
Once the JPA is formed, hopefully within the month if all seven councils pass it, the cities can start formal talks with Arnold about acquiring the facility, Garratt said.
Arnold said she would be absolutely open to selling the cities the space if the Humane Society moves. She said it would make sense since it is a working animal shelter and people already know where to find it. She also said there would be more than enough room for animals the JPA will be responsible for, because San Jose is currently building its own facility to serve its needs.
Two years from now, San Jose intends to have a new shelter. Today, it accounts for 70 percent of the volume of animals at the Humane Society, according to Arnold.
The JPA is scheduled for the agenda of the Saratoga City Council on June 21. If approved by all councils, the JPA will be a public entity with a director and an appointed board. The cities then can share equipment, personnel, and resources. The agreement will define the cost structure and the voting structure for each city, based on animal activity in each city. These structures would be locked in place for the next two years, according to Garratt. Then, each city's percentages would be reevaluated, he said.
When the Humane Society announced two years ago that they wanted to move to a no-kill shelter concept, it made sense that all nine cities would join together and look for a solution, said Garratt.
The original proposal was to form a JPA that included San Jose and Milpitas to build a shelter in San Jose, for between $16 million and $20 million. San Jose would fund three quarters of the cost. But seven of the cities felt that they would be contracting with San Jose, which would have the majority vote. So the cities, except for Milpitas which will still contract with San Jose for services, separated from San Jose about six months ago.
In terms of voting structure in the new JPA, Santa Clara has two votes, the West Valley cities have three votes, and Sunnyvale has two votes, so no one city can carry a proposal by itself, Garratt said. "That was the problem with San Jose," he added.
The cost structure approximately breaks down to Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and the West Valley city groups each paying a third. Garratt said the seven cities are not really planning to contract with San Jose, except as a fallback option.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
